Best programs for creating and animating pixel art?

[Barney]

Hi. I'm working on an adventure game with 8-bit style graphics like, for example,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3gKyF5Muw8
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jWYCXneCn8
which is going to feature a great deal of animations and cutscenes. Can anybody recommend me a good program for creating long animations which is at the same time handy for pixel art? I'm currently using Graphics Gale, but it's clearly not cut out for the job.

[DoorKnobHandle]

Cosmigo Pro Motion 6 all the way! Not free though But it has a trial available!

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

Yes, I would echo that sentiment with interest.  Every game I've worked on in the last 10 or so years has been with Pro Motion.  Not only do I beta test it but I've contributed to feature requests with Jan Zimmerman, Pro Motion's author.  As far as pixel art and animation, believe me when I say it's the best there is at what it does and the price is extremely reasonable.

[abstauber]

"Ask me about Loom ProMotion"
Yeah, ProMotion is also my #1 choice.

Anyhow the free options are:
GraphicsGale http://www.humanbalance.net/gale/us/
and
Aseprite http://www.aseprite.org/

[Tabata]

Since it is fitting in here I hope it's okay for Barney if I ask in this thread:

Has one of this programms features that support paralax scrolling (for amateurs)
or can someone recommend another program for to create gif's that include paralax scrolling?

[Anian]

Cosmigo confuses the hell out of me (for example onionskinning or even something simple as erasing is unintuitive as hell - two things that should be a big ass button each, I can make a million brushes with two clicks (which is a good feature), but erase a pixel, that I tried to do for 15 minutes), although some things are slightly better than Graphics Gale in some aspects.

Photoshop still has the best shortcuts logic from all these softwares (except Aseprite which has the same shortcuts, but only drawback is it lacks a separate window for layers and/or frames and onionskin, instead you have to Tab to view frames/layers window). That said PS is really not suited for animating sprites (but it's not bad for making pixel art in general).

[Khristian Cammilleri]

My choice would be GIMP
Is pretty much like Photoshop but free and open source
Personally I think that the tool doesn't make the man, it doesn't matter which program you use,
Just do it with effort and dedication
Good luck with your game!
http://www.gimp.org/

[selmiak]

http://pyxeledit.com/
I thought I'd mention it, but I haven't tried it yet as I like PS very much for everything.

[Khris]

Tried Pyxel, and it's exactly what I have been looking for ever since ProMotion kept crashing on me when working on layered tilemaps.
Thanks very much for the link!

[Armageddon]

I use GIMP, to me it has a lot of nice shortcuts that make pixel art a lot easier.

[amateurhour]

For animating, I use the photoshop Timeline feature.

For pixel art itself, no bullshit, I use MS paint (the nice version bundled with win7 and up)

I start with low res, and if you click the magnifying glass it does a perfect 4:1 ratio enlarge, so you can just print screen and you've got a higher resolution and/or more pixels to play with if you want to go further with shading and detail, repeat as needed for higher resolutions.

I just can't do pixel art in photoshop for some reason, despite how awesome layers are. I always just start really small and work my way up by resizing through magnify and print screen. I'm by no means a master at pixel art though so it's definitely a beginner tool if you're just starting out. (paint, not photoshop)     

[Anian]

I just can't do pixel art in photoshop for some reason, despite how awesome layers are. I always just start really small and work my way up by resizing through magnify and print screen. I'm by no means a master at pixel art though so it's definitely a beginner tool if you're just starting out. (paint, not photoshop)     

Sorry, what and why do you do this? 
Why do you resize and why do you resize by using printscreen?

[DoorKnobHandle]

Pyxel looks very nice indeed, except apparently the (planned) animation features aren't implemented yet? It is beta after all I guess. But yeah, this could be the long-awaited free Pro Motion alternative for me! Exceptional find!

[Matt Frith]

I switched from Photoshop to GraphicsGale a couple of years ago and really like using it. Sadly, you have to buy the full version (about £15) to be able to save gifs though.

[Calin Leafshade]

aseprite.org is my favourite.

[amateurhour]

I just can't do pixel art in photoshop for some reason, despite how awesome layers are. I always just start really small and work my way up by resizing through magnify and print screen. I'm by no means a master at pixel art though so it's definitely a beginner tool if you're just starting out. (paint, not photoshop)     

Sorry, what and why do you do this? 
Why do you resize and why do you resize by using printscreen?

No I fully understand that it's a batshit crazy ass backwards way of doing things, but it works, and it's quick (at least the way I do it) and it's kind of like working on a painting. I can add or take away a little bit at a time pixel by pixel, I just have to remember to keep multiple progress saves while I'm working.

It's just my weird process.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

photoshop still has the best shortcuts logic from all these softwares (except Aseprite which has the same shortcuts, but only drawback is it lacks a separate window for layers and/or frames and onionskin, instead you have to Tab to view frames/layers window).

100% disagree.  I find pro motion extremely easy to use and photoshop often unnecessarily kludgy. 


Khris- you wouldn't have been using one of the pirated beta versions, would you?  Those are notoriously unstable.  The most recent release has no crash issues I am aware of (though the previous build and 6.0 beta did, typically stack overflows).

Ultimately you should use whatever is easiest learn and satisfies as many of your needs as possible.  If Pro Motion had a 32-bit graphics version for high res and filters I'd probably never use another 2D art program.

[Khris]

I was using 6.0.0.168, but it could've been the trial, too. I'm not sure where I got it. I'd buy the current version, but $78? Not for something I use once every other month.
When Pyxel starts supporting changing palette colors within the sprite, it'll be doing everything I need.

[trothmaster]

I'll lend my vote to Photoshop and the timeline feature for animation.  Plus, the content-aware feature can be amazing. I'm not technically an artist, but if I need to edit something from my artist real quick and if its a landscape, content-aware can work miracles.

[Vroni]

I use the ASEprite by Allegro (for backgrounds and short animations) and the Autodesk Animator. These are really oldschool tools, but they work very well.